Modern motor vehicles, such as passenger cars, have side-curtain air bags that deploy over the longitudinal sides of a vehicle cabin to reduce occupant injury during an impact event by providing a cushioning layer between the vehicle interior and the occupant. Side-curtain airbags are stowed along the roof rail and are hidden by the headliner and interior trim components. Air pressure from the inflator forces the airbag between the headliner and the trim components during deployment.
Trim components include edges susceptible to entanglement with the airbag during deployment. This can cause improper deployment of the airbag and damage to the trim components. Some airbags include a sail cloth or tether that deploys over the trim components to guide the airbag during deployment. Sail clothes and tethers can catch behind the trim component causing damage to the trim component.
Other airbag-guide solutions use a portion of a trim component to guide the airbag during deployment. Trim components are typically made of plastic, which may fracture during airbag deployment. The brittleness of plastic increases as temperatures decreases, which increases the susceptibility of trim-component fracture at cold temperatures. Ever-increasing safety standards are causing automakers to use more powerful inflators that eject the airbag at higher forces. These forces are sufficient to fracture plastic guides, especially at low temperatures. The strength of the trim components can be increased by using exotic materials and thicker panels, however, this increases costs of the trim components. As such, forming airbag guides solely from trim components has several disadvantages.